Georgetown : Guyana is hoping to influencing the developing world to argue the case for hasty disbursement of the resources pledged to them when it assumes the role of co-chair to the Interim Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) and Partnership with Germany.
President Bharrat Jagdeo told officials from over 35 countries in the Amazon, Congo and Borneo-Mekong gathered at a special summit for rainforest countries in the Republic of Congo that the position as co-chair will take effect from July 1.
The REDD+ Partnership is an interim initiative for partnership among countries to scale up actions and finance for initiatives to reduce emissions from REDD in developing countries with focus on support for developing capacity building and performance based REDD efforts, based on individual national circumstances.
Guyana has thus far acquired US$70M through payments received from the world’s second largest forest climate services arrangement with Norway and has been able to transition the economy on the low carbon trajectory envisioned by President Jagdeo.
President Jagdeo is dissatisfied with the rate at which the funds are released pointing a finger at financial intermediaries such as the World Bank and the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) responsible for the disbursement.
“The money now sits in an account and for almost a year we are trying to get this money flowing for projects in Guyana. This is money we already earned… and I dare say one of the things that we have to, work on too, as a developing world not just to get money to flow to forested countries but to ensure that these development institutions… also see this with a sense of urgency,” President Jagdeo said.
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